The Repair Café in Hassocks relocating in January 2023

By Juliet Merrifield, HKD Transition

From 28th January, the Repair Café will be relocating to the Age Concern Centre on Dale Avenue. Along with Hassocks Village Market, we’ll be part of a new village hub and we hope to see lots of people there.

You can bring items for repair between 9.30-11.30 am. We can usually complete simpler repairs that morning by 12.30pm, and more complex tasks can be taken home by our repairers for pick up later. No need to book, but if you’re not sure we can work on something, do email or message us on Facebook.

The Repair Café’s second year was very successful, with many more items brought for repair: a grand total of 246 assorted hedge trimmers, toasters, radios, clocks, vacuum cleaners and jackets, shirts and coats needing zips and buttons. There were also some more unusual items successfully repaired: a 60-year-old doll missing an arm, a raclette grill, a violin, a 70-year-old leather holdall, a small wooden box with a ‘magic’ closure and a toy rabbit that had been chewed by a puppy.

Thanks to generous donations we covered all our costs and ended the year with a small surplus. Our amazing and talented repairers achieved an 80% success rate – not everything is repairable but we can have a go and more often than not we can get things fixed. We can also offer advice on items that you may be able to fix yourself or refer you to professionals who can help with things that we can’t.

We’re always keen to recruit new repairers to keep up with rising demand so if you’re good at fixing things, whether electrical items, sharpening tools, sewing zips or other more specialist items please do contact us at repaircafe@hkdtransition.org.uk.

Great Big Green Week 2021

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Beginning on Saturday 18th September, Great Big Green Week is a national celebration of local action on climate change and HKD Transition have planned lots of activities

• Saturday 18th : Slowing the flow: our community response to flooding in Hassocks – click the picture for information on guided walks.

• Monday 20th : Imagine a Brighter Future for our Community - Hurst rethink event as part of Hurst festival

• Wednesday 22nd : The Air We Breathe, see page 24 of September’s Hassocks Life magazine

• Thursday 24th: Whole house energy retrofit event joint with Fairer World Lindfield - details will be updated on the Fairer World Lindfield Facebook page

• Saturday 25th: Hassocks Repair café opens, a fitting finale for HKD Transition’s Great Big Green Week, see here.
Find out more at www.greatbiggreenweek.com

Repair Café comes to Hassocks

By Juliet Merrifield, HKD Transition

What can you do with a dress with a broken zip? A lamp with a frayed lead? A stool with a wobbly leg? A toy truck whose wheel has come off? A teddy bear with stuffing coming out? Bring it to the Repair Café Hassocks! Our team of volunteer repairers have had a lifetime of fixing things and now are willing to help fix your things too.

Barring changes in Covid-19 guidelines, Repair Café Hassocks will start on 28th November, then every month on Market Day (fourth Saturday) except December and August. We’ll be at the URC church at 23 Keymer Rd from 10am-1pm, ready to have a go at fixing things.

It may be that you don’t have a sewing machine, or arthritic fingers make it hard to do sewing that once was easy. Or maybe your household items are waiting for a new part or someone to glue it together. We can’t promise to fix everything, but we’ll try our best.

You can book items for repair via the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/repaircafehassocks.

With current Covid-19 restrictions we won’t be operating the ‘café’ part but you can drop off items for repair and pick them up later that morning.

Questions? Email us at: repaircafe@hkdtransition.org.uk.

Planned Hassocks Repair Cafe seeks volunteers

HKD Transition is hoping to establish a repair cafe in Hassocks, to coincide with market day each month and taking place at the United Reformed Church. Repair cafés are pop-up events located on regular dates where the local community can get their broken household items repaired for free by volunteers. The types of things fixed include clothes, household electrics, technology, woodwork, children’s toys and furniture.
The idea is not to compete with local businesses or professionals but to fill the gaps where these don’t exist or where the cost of repairs is more than replacing the item. Repair cafes are a way for our communities to help each other move away from our throwaway culture.
To get the repair cafe going we need a team of volunteers who would be interested in participating and lending their repair skills, as well as helpers with the café and with organising and greeting.
Do you have any skills to share and would you be willing to volunteer? If so please email the team at: repaircafe@hkdtransition.org.uk.
You can find out more about how a successful repair cafe works and how it might work for us locally by visiting the Burgess Hill Repair Cafe, which will be starting again on 12th September from 10am-1pm at The Kiln (the former Argos store).